So today was a big day. The kids started school AND we moved into our new place!!
The day started out really early. Got the kids up and out to school by 8! While Eric went to meet the cleaning girl at our house, I took Talia and Ben to school. First we walked Talia her her school. She was very very nervous! I brought her up to her classroom like all the other parents and sat her down at her desk. The classroom is set up with long desks in U shapes, I guess and the kids each had to find their name by their place. SO I got her set up and the teacher started to speak in Hebrew and she turned to me and said “I don’t want to stay here!” So I scooped her up and we ran out of the school and she’s never going back. Okay, so that’s not what I did, even though every instinct in my body told me to. Instead, I promised her that she was going to be okay. I reminded her that she hated her first day of kindergarten. She reminded me that in kindergarten she could at least undertand what the teacher was saying. Anyway, I reassured her and a little girl next to her said not to worry, that she would explain it all to her! So cute!! Then I reminded the teacher who she was and that she didn’t speak of word of Hebrew and she told me not to worry.
She happends to have a wonderful teacher and I think she is going to do very well in school. I think she might be a little bit ahead of the class in math and from what she brought home today, I think she’s going to be okay in Hebrew too! Go Westchester Day School!
Next I dropped off Ben. He threw a minor fit on the way to school. Something about wanted chocolate milk and Eric to take him and not wanting to go, etc. I managed to drag him there (part of the way I mean that literally) and got him settled. He too told me that he didn’t want me to leave so I stayed for a few minutes and talked to his teacher. She told me that we missed a meeting the night before. We never got a notice about it. Whatever. She said that the kids all made little crowns and they made one for Ben. They kept calling him Binyamin b/c we filled that out as his name. I thought between the Hebrew and the wrong name he wouldn’t know what was flying. I quickly corrected that and told his teachers he didn’t know Hebrew and left!
I was pretty happy with what I saw there. It seemed like a nice big classroom with many different activities set up in an organized way on tables. I think it’s going to be good.
I went back to the Spiegelman’s house and packed up the stuff we had there with Eric. Oh, on a side note, the cleaning girl couldn’t find the house and we couldn’t find her. It wasn’t looking good.
As I was heading to the house to help Eric clean at 10, I decided to call someone in Ben’s school to double check what time he was getting out of school. Turns out he was getting out at 10! I did an about face and went to pick him up. He seemed to be very happy. Go figure! On the way out of school he asked me if he could go to a friend’s house and I asked the mother and he went home with them, where he proceeded to eat them out of house and home. Unfortunately, the boy was an English speaker, so he won’t be learning any Hebrew there.
I got back to the house and got a call that our cleaning girl was on her way, that she went to another house and the woman there was expecting a cleaning girl of her own that she didn’t know and she thought she was it and she started cleaning for her before they realized what had happened!! Right out of an episode of Three’s Company. So she cleaned while the air conditioning people fixed the air on the third floor.
At 11:45 I went to get Talia from school! I was so excited that I got there 15 minutes early. I stood outside the school with the other parents and waited. She came around the corner (they were apparently having some sort of celebration for rosh chodesh. we’re not sure, though since Talia didn’t know for sure) and she looked okay. not thrilled, just okay. She started to come over to me but her teacher said that all the kids should go in and get their bags. Her teacher was saying it and miming it to Talia. I thought that was good.
So we walked home and she told me the funniest thing! She said that her friend told her it was time to put their stuff away and while it was taking her time to do that the teacher said something and when she turned around everyone had left the classroom!! She had no clue what was going on. She went out and figured out that they were all washing for aruchat eser (they eat lunch at 10 am here, crazy!) So she went and washed with them. I was hysterical when I heard this. The poor kid has no clue what’s happening. I told her that maybe tomorrow when the teacher announces it’s time to wash, she’ll remember the words and know what to do. I’m not holding my breath.
So next we went back to the house and paid the cleaning girl (who ripped us off) and went to lunch while Eric went to look at some used cars. We went to the mall b/c I couldn’t find Domino Pizza in Modiin. We got pizza and slushies as a first day of school treat. Eric later showed me how to find it so I can find it another time by myself. Then we picked Eric up and we went food shopping and to the Home Center store here for some odds and ends. We couldn’t buy too much b/c the fridge that my grandmother gave us to borrow is small. It seems we’ll be frequenting the makolete until our fridge comes on our lift. Still no word on the lift.
Anyway, tonight we made some sandwiches for dinner and the kids ate on a blanket on the floor since we dind’t have time to pick up the table and chairs that a friend said they could loan us. Then we tucked the kids in and I unpacked and unpacked and unpacked some more. I am exhausted and the lift isn’t even here yet!! The problem is that we have no furniture to unpack into and houses here don’t come with any closets. So we have neat little piles of clothing in all the bedrooms. I just decided that we couldn’t live out of suitcases a minute longer!
While I was unpacking, Eric was looking to see if we have internet here from out neighbors. Turns out that we do!! Yay!! So I am writing this blog from my blowup air mattress, courtesy of Camp Moshava, in our new house! Tomorrow he’s going to see if he can hook up a phone over the internet for us. The only problem is I think the connection is going to be stinky since it’s wireless. We’ll see. But having internet it great.
It is great to be in our own place (even with no furniture). There was a beautiful sunset that I saw from my window. I’ll get a picture of it tomorrow if it’s a clear day and post it if I can. The breeze on the mirpeset it beautiful. Our house is in a really nice location.
One funny story about Ben before I end this. As we were walking to his gan this morning and I was tyring to prepare him for the language difference, I was telling him that soon he and Talia would start talking Hebrew to each other and Eric and i wouldn’t be able to understand them. So we were going on and on and He said yeah, I am going to talk to you in Hebrew and to Talia in Hebrew. And then he said, but what am I going o say? I think that it sounded much funnier when he said it. I might have forgotten the exact words. Oh well.
Today’s pictures are of Talia and Ben with their backpacks on the first day of school and of the kids eating their sandwiches on the floor in the kitchen in the new house. I’ll try to take pics tomorrow of the house too.
Click on the link below to see:
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